5. Brovish
CHAPTER FIVE
brOVISH
On the day Laina was supposed to start, I found Sofia sitting on Laina’s new desk like she owned it, which technically she might.
As if she’d known today was the day, the emberkit had taken up residence there sometime before dawn.
I’d woken to find her perch empty and tracked her from my small cabin and through the facility by her faint glow.
She’d flown straight to the office we’d set up for Laina and planted herself in the center of the desk.
She used to wait for me like that before I started bringing her to my cottage at night.
“You can’t stay there,” I told her.
Sofia peeped without looking at me.
I crossed the room and lifted her carefully, her round body warming my palms. She settled onto my shoulder with a resigned trill as I headed out to start morning rounds.
The east pasture needed checking first. The juvenile hearthmaw had been restless lately, pacing the fence line at odd hours. I wanted to see if he’d settled overnight.
I made it halfway across the yard before Sofia launched herself off my shoulder.
She flew back toward the building in a streak of orange, her small wings beating hard.
Drogar stood outside the supply shed, a bag of feed over one shoulder. “Your friend has left you.”
“She’ll come back.”
“Will she?” He grinned and strode toward the western enclosure.
I checked the hearthmaw. He was calmer this morning, lying in the grass under a shade tree.
When I returned to the building, Sofia was sitting on Laina’s desk again in the same spot.
“She won’t be here for a few hours,” I said from the open doorway. “Not until eight.”
That was the time she and Traig had agreed upon.
The emberkit’s spiked tail curled around her feet.
Crossing the room, I lifted her gently and carried her back out to continue rounds. She tolerated my shoulder for as long as it took me to reach the main hallway.
With a peep, she flew straight back to the office.
“Fine,” I called after her. “I’ll…come find you later. For treats.”
My shoulder felt light in the wrong way. For the past year, she’d ridden there through morning rounds, every intake, and the nights when a frightened creature needed watching and I’d stayed until dawn.
She’d never left me for someone else.
I’d watched other creatures make their choice known during our Love at First Growl events, something we’d started after Drogar suggested them.
People hoping to adopt a creature would sit on chairs in a room and the animals would stroll among them.
They’d pick their person, one they trusted most, and the matches had been one-hundred-percent successful.
It appeared that Sofia had chosen Laina. Which meant I’d chosen her too, in some way I wasn’t ready to examine yet.
I left the emberkit where she was and went to finish rounds alone.
Laina walked through the door a few hours later.
She wore the same boots, clean of mud, but her jacket was different today. Tan instead of dark green, and it made her eyes look warmer, like honey instead of amber.
Sofia scrambled off the desk and shot into the hallway, her wings flapping so hard she tilted sideways and nearly hit the wall. She corrected mid-flight, zoomed through the entryway, and launched herself at Laina before I’d managed to say good morning.
Laina laughed, catching Sofia against her chest. “Hey. Did you miss me?”
Sofia trilled and climbed up to her shoulder, nestling against her neck.
“She’s been waiting for you,” I said.
Laina looked up at me, her smile bright. “Really?”
“On your desk. She wouldn’t leave.”
Her expression softened. She stroked Sofia’s spine. “I missed you too.”
The emberkit purred, a sound like distant thunder, and I stood there feeling like I’d intruded on a private moment.
“Should I show you to your office?” I asked.
“That would be great. Thank you.”
She shifted her bag higher on her shoulder, but I took it from her.
We walked down the hallway.
I stopped outside the room and she stepped in, taking in the space.
It was small but functional. A desk, chair, and filing cabinet, and a window that looked out over the north side of the property.
It had held miscellaneous supplies before.
We’d cleared it out two days ago, scrubbed it clean, and added the furniture we’d ordered.
I set her bag on the desk.
She sat in the big chair behind it, smiling down at how tiny she was compared to the size.
“It’s made for orcs,” I said.
“I figured.”
“We’ve ordered a human-sized chair, but it won’t be here until next week. Krem donated his desk. He wasn’t using it.”
“That’s nice of him.”
“Krem is nice.”
Did she like Krem more than she did me?
I stopped that thought before it got started. If she liked Krem, she liked Krem. There wasn’t anything I could do about something like that.
“Everything’s perfect.” She tucked one leg under herself, her hands resting on the armrests that extended past her forearms. The chair swallowed her.
She pulled things out from her bag one by one. A notebook. A pen with etching that could be expensive. We’d have to keep that away from the mossnibbles or we’d never find it in their nest. A coffee mug with a cartoon dog on it that said, I’m here for the muttrimony.
The mug had a chip on the handle.
She’d brought a damaged mug instead of a new one. That meant something, though I wasn’t sure what.
“This will work very well,” she said, looking around.
“It’s small.”
“It’s mine.” She said it like that mattered more than the size.
I understood that.
She unpacked the rest of her bag and looked up at me. “How is Cooper doing?”
She’d called each day to check on him, but the clatterwing just needed time to heal, so she hadn’t come in person.
“He’s well. I’ll show you.”
We walked to the kennel room together, Sofia still perched on Laina’s shoulder. The emberkit hadn’t stopped purring since Laina arrived.
Laina stooped down in front of Cooper’s crate and carefully lifted the corner.
Cooper blinked at us, his feathers chiming when he shifted.
“Good morning, Cooper,” Laina said. “Let’s check out that wing.”
She opened the crate and ran her hands over his wing, testing the wrap. She also checked the food bowl and the water. The bird tolerated it well, but he knew her now. He trusted her.
“He’s still eating and drinking?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“That’s exactly what we want to see.” She stroked Cooper’s back once before closing the crate and straightening.
Sofia peeped from Laina’s shoulder, and Laina reached up to stroke her spine.
The emberkit had spent the past year on my shoulder. Now she was on Laina’s, and she looked like she’d always belonged there.
And it felt right.
I left Laina to settle in and headed to my office to finish paperwork. Traig had reminded me twice this week that intake logs were due, and I’d been putting them off. I made it through two entries before I found myself walking back to the medical bay.
Laina was there, reorganizing supplies.
She’d moved things. The room still looked like itself, but she’d grouped items in a way that made more sense than alphabetical. Syringes with syringes. Bandages with bandages. Labels faced forward.
I stood in the doorway and watched her work.
She’d labeled everything the same way I made entries in my notebook. Clear. Specific. No wasted words.
“Did I mess up your system?” she asked without turning around. “I thought I’d do some organizing before the vellicharm got here.”
“No. It’s better this way.”
“You sure?” She glanced over her shoulder. “I can put it back.”
“Don’t.”
She smiled and went back to organizing.
The clock on the wall read eight fifty-five.
“The vellicharm arrives soon,” I said.
She closed the cabinet and turned to face me. “What should I expect?”
“They pick up on whatever manner their handler displays.”
She nodded slowly. “So they mimic behavior.”
“Yes. This one came from a high lady in the kingdom. She unfortunately died and her family can’t take her. That’s why she’s coming here. We hope to place her in a new forever home. But it will mimic the high lady’s mannerisms for some time.”
“High lady, huh? What happens if I’m rude to it?”
I could tell she was joking. I was not. “It will cut you.”
Her eyebrows lifted. “Excuse me?”
“Their claws are very sharp. They use them if you don’t behave in the manner they expect.”
“I see. I’ll be polite.”
“Very polite.”
The door swung open and Krem stepped inside, pushing a rolling crate. The vellicharm sat inside, long-limbed and elegant, its luminous eyes watching us through the bars.
It was the size of a large dog but shaped like something between a deer and a house cat, with fur, whiskers, but a short, stubby tail that would wag when she was happy.
“Good morning,” Krem said. “Our guest has arrived. Let me introduce you to Duchess Filandra.”
The vellicharm tilted her head, studying Laina.
Laina stepped forward and bent at the waist in a small, formal bow. “Thank you for allowing me to meet you.”
The creature’s ears swiveled forward.
Laina had curtsied.
My throat tightened until it hurt.
The vellicharm stood and approached the crate door.
Laina waited.
“May I examine you?” she asked.
The creature dipped her head once. Permission granted.
Laina opened the crate slowly, her movements matching the creature’s pace. The vellicharm stepped out into the room and sat, her posture perfect.
I’d worked with a vellicharm once. It had scratched me before I’d finished the intake assessment.
Laina ran her hands over the creature’s shoulders, checking for injuries or abnormalities. The vellicharm allowed it, watching her with luminous green eyes.
She moved through the exam in a steady, thorough way, paying attention to everything. When the creature’s claws flexed, she adjusted her grip without flinching.
The vellicharm relaxed under her hands.
“Thank you,” Laina said softly. To me or the creature; I wasn’t sure.
She finished the exam and stepped back. “You’re in excellent health, Duchess. We’ll find you a good home.”
The vellicharm stood, dipped her head, and returned to the crate.
Krem wheeled her out, grinning. “That went much better than expected.”
Laina leaned against the counter beside me, swiping hair out of her eyes. “Has one ever scratched you?”
“Yes.”
“What did you do wrong?”
“I didn’t bow first.”
She laughed.
I froze, wanting to hear it again.